by Wayne Slossberg
3PL News recently published an article titled “The Top 3 Reasons Why Companies Change 3PL Providers and How to Avoid Them Yourself.” Recognizing that it is less expensive to retain current customers than to sign new ones, the piece suggested a three-pronged approach to keep customers from moving to competitors: improving customer service, offering affordable pricing and employing user-friendly technology.
As I read the article, I was struck by the fact these are universal truths, equally applicable to a global trade management software provider like QuestaWeb. I also was pleased when I considered all that QuestaWeb has already done to integrate these three principles into our corporate culture.
Customer Service
QuestaWeb customers are often taken aback when Leon Turetsky, our CEO, or Felix Pekar, our COO, personally answer the phone and speak to customers directly. Yes, in spite of the growth QuestaWeb has experienced since its founding, Leon and Felix never want customers to think they are no longer involved in operations or concerned about their customers. QuestaWeb places the highest priority on customer satisfaction, as the company’s business philosophy expresses.
We think we are doing a pretty good job, but we never cease to find ways to do even better. We moved to a new corporate headquarters, complete with training facilities to enhance onsite customer training. We hired several senior account support representatives to provide direct points of contact for our customers. We opened offices in St. Louis and Mobile, Alabama, to better serve the growing number of customer firms nationally. And, most recently, we launched a new website that makes customer inquiries and content updates even easier. This blog, in particular, is designed to share information we believe our customers will find useful.
State-of-the-Art Technology
Unlike most of our competitors, QuestaWeb invested both the time and the money to create and test new, web-native global trade management solutions for our customers before entering the marketplace as a global trade management software provider. Using C# and .NET, our developers created modern software that enhances its functionality, scalability and ease of use. QuestaWeb regularly updates our software, and the content it draws on, so that it is as up-to-date as possible. When one customer requests a customization that we think others will find useful, we share the new functionality with all our customers.
QuestaWeb’s software has been updated to comply with the latest version of the HTML5 standard. This update includes enhanced cross-browser compatibility. Since QuestaWeb applications are now compatible with Internet Explorer 8-11, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari, users can expect the same experience regardless of the browser or device employed.
As our recent blog titled “Web-Native Applications Go Anywhere with You – Even to 35,000 Feet,” demonstrated, our customers are even using our web-native technology and cross-browser compatibility to perform their trade-related functions on the go.
Affordability
The article cites price as a significant factor in customer abandonment. As anyone who has dealt with QuestaWeb knows, our business model is sensitive to cost concerns. Because QuestaWeb offers its global trade management software as modules, customers can acquire the solution(s) they need now without being forced to obtain functionality they do not require over the near term. Later, as needed, they can add to their solution as their business grows or service offerings expand.
QuestaWeb’s deployment options point toward cost effectiveness, too. If a firm wishes to deploy its QuestaWeb solution on the QuestaWeb cloud, it can control overhead costs related to hardware and administrative.
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We value our customers and respect the business demands they face. We see it as our job to facilitate global trade management compliance for them. We are pleased that our customers opt to stay with us and our solutions for importers, exporters, foreign trade zones, brokers and forwarders.
